Strayhorn says state has responsibility to immigrants

Houston Chronicle (AP) ^ | Aug. 16, 2005 | AP Staff

[The_Victor]

Immigrants, legal or otherwise, come to Texas to "put a roof over their heads" and Texas has a responsibility to provide them education and health care once they are here, Republican gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn told a conservative GOP group today.

In a week when the governors of Arizona and New Mexico declared states of emergency for counties along their border with Mexico, citing the "ravages and terror" caused by illegal immigration, Strayhorn took a conciliatory tone on the same issue. But she also said the state needs help from the federal government.

"I sympathize with those coming over who want to put a roof over their heads," Strayhorn told the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club. "We can't turn them away from the hospital steps."

Strayhorn, the state comptroller who is challenging incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in the March 2006 primary, made her remarks in response to questions from club members who wanted to know if she would be willing to take similar steps as those taken by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.

"We have to protect our borders from terrorists," Strayhorn said, noting that federal law requires states to provide education and health care to immigrants.

A spokesman for Perry agreed.

"The governor has and will continue to remind the federal government that border security is a federal issue, not a state issue," spokesman Robert Black said. "The state will do what it can and help in any way, but this is a federal issue."

Strayhorn, in taking a welcoming tone to immigrants from Mexico, is trying to find voters outside the traditional Republican primary-voting base, which is made up of conservative voters, said Bob Stein, political scientist at Rice University.

"There's a reasonable policy position on (illegal immigration), but it doesn't overlap with the passion" of GOP primary voters, Stein said.

Stein also theorized that Strayhorn, in search for campaign dollars, is unwilling to take a close-the-border stance and alienate large homebuilders and highway construction companies who use immigrant labor and contribute heavily in Republican politics.

The GOP challenger, whose prepared remarks excoriated Perry again for what she called a lack of leadership for the Legislature's failure to pass a school funding bill, pledged to make education the focus of her administration.

But Black noted that Strayhorn said she would issue a school finance plan last year.

"It's time for her to unveil her secret plan," he said.

Asked if she would "at least" do away with bilingual education, Strayhorn, a former school teacher and school board member, said that while total immersion in English is effective, "these kids go home to parents who speak Spanish."

"I can't make a blanket statement that bilingual education is bad," she said, adding that she favors school-based community programs that teach the whole

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Statement: "Strayhorn says state has responsibility to immigrants"

Response: Translation. "You suckers pay, I'll play!"(At your expense)

[devane617]

There are huge articles in todays, Dallas Morning News about II, as well as another big article in today's Miami Hearld about giving drivers license ti II's.

Is the Republican party really this much out of touch?

[Ron H.]

If I'm not mistaken, Perry's position is not greatly different.

Well he now has a chance to show us where he stands on the issue of illegal immigration law breakers feeding at the American tax-payers teat and whether he will get out in front of this issue or show that he isn't any different from the likes of Strayhorn and her fellow OBL boosters and try to out pander her to this segment of our society.

[Ron H.]

Well, it depends on how you define "Republican". If you mean a conservative Republican, the answer is a loud no. If, on the other hand, you mean the GOP Big Tent with its RINOs, liberals and moderates, then, yes, Strayhorn is a Republican.

Well articulated! Good for you!

[devane617]

Here is her contact info: http://www.carolestrayhorn.com/contact.php

I certainly home everyone will take a moment to call and leave a message, and drop an email to her. This is so out of touch as to not be believeable.

[Bigun]

Immigrants, legal or otherwise, come to Texas to "put a roof over their heads" and Texas has a responsibility to provide them education and health care once they are here, Republican gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn told a conservative GOP group today.

If there was any possibility (there wasn't) that this fast talking idiot would get my vote it just went up in smoke with that statement!

[Ron H.]

Strayhorn sure won't get our vote, and Perry just lost it too.

I suspect that you will have lots of company.

[The_Victor]

Is the Republican party really this much out of touch?

There are just a lot of would-be democRATs who have joined the Republican party in the past ~10 years. For people like Strayhorn, it's about being on the winning team, not ideology. That's Texas politics though. 20 years ago it was the same situation in reverse for the democRATs.

[rahbert]

Is Kinky seriously running? I've seen the bumper stickers
(my wife has one)...

Hopefully this will split the moonbat vote.

[The_Victor]

Strayhorn sure won't get our vote, and Perry just lost it too.

Who do you plan to vote for? Honestly.

[Ron H.]

I thought Texas had cattle, not RINO'S.

You might be surprised how they have proliferated like termites not only here in Texas but throughout the nation. They have been eating away at the nations foundation threatening to bring it down around our ears ever since the Demorats found that all they had to do to survive was to become a turncoat RINO.

[devane617]

Kinky Friedman. His stickers will go on my car today.

[America's Resolve]

Strayhorn, in taking a welcoming tone to immigrants from Mexico, is trying to find voters outside the traditional Republican primary-voting base, which is made up of conservative voters, said Bob Stein, political scientist at Rice University.

In what way is this different from Galloway and Chirac pimping from Muslim votes?

I don't want the Repubs to pander to the illegal base anymore. They do this country harm, even if they do themselves good.

[reelfoot]

"Immigrants, legal or otherwise, come to Texas to "put a roof over their heads" and Texas has a responsibility to provide them education and health care once they are here, Republican gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn told a conservative GOP group today."

She may be a Republican, but she's obviously not a conservative. First, Carole, baby, government has no RESPONSIBILITY to provide education and health care even to its own citizens. To claim it has a responsibility to do so to people who have illegally invaded our country is insane.

This woman should not be merely voted down, she should be ridden on a rail out of Texas into Narco Laredo.

[Happy2BMe]

Crazy and stray as a loon - and wanting to join the ever-growing OBL Governor's Club . .

You can only imagine what these people discuss in their hidden round table meetings before they go public with this stuff.

Here is a yet another champion of the 'New and Improved' Compassionate Republican . .

==============================================

Immigrants, legal or otherwise, come to Texas to "put a roof over their heads" and Texas has a responsibility to provide them education and health care once they are here, Republican gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn told a conservative GOP group today.

In a week when the governors of Arizona and New Mexico declared states of emergency for counties along their border with Mexico, citing the "ravages and terror" caused by illegal immigration, Strayhorn took a conciliatory tone on the same issue. But she also said the state needs help from the federal government.

[The_Victor]

Kinky Friedman. His stickers will go on my car today.

Kinky would be right at home in the democRAT party, he just know he would never get past the primaries.

Excerpts from an interview with MyWestTexas:

MyWestTexas.com: Any idea of how to fix the school finance issue?
Kinky: Three basic ideas ... The first is called the Trust For Texas Heroes, which is taking a one-percent charge at wellhead from big corportate oil -- not the little fellers, the Rockefellers -- and all the big corporations in Texas that aren't paying now. We take that one percent, put it in a trust, and not let it go in lobbyists' pockets like the lottery money has; but it would go to Texas heroes: our teachers, cops and firefighers. Secondly, transfer all sports funding out of education, and let corporate funding bid for all high school sports -- ads, stadiums, uniforms, concessions, everything. It's been done in Georgia for the past three eyars and it's apparently working there but our legislature hasn't approached Georgia to see how well it's worked. Third, Slots for Tots, bring in legalized casino gambling. Have video poker in bars, and casino gambling. Let's at least let the taxpayers decide if this would be a solution.

MyWestTexas.com: Anything else?
Kinky: Get rid of the TAKS test and put the only people in charge of the classroom who have actually ever seen the inside of the classroom: put teachers back in charge. For the first time ever, Texas has finally slipped below Mississippi in classroom performance.

MyWestTexas.com: What is the Texas Peace Corps?
Kinky: The Texas Peace Corps will create an in-state volunteer agency, modeled after the Peace Corps, to promote the arts and life skills in our schools. Musicians and artists, along with retired teachers, business executives, and police, will join us in teaching our kids how to act, play music, paint, write a check, keep accounts, and stay out of trouble. I would ask some of my friends, like Laura Bush, Willie, Richard 'Racehorse' Haynes, and former UT Coach Darrell Royal, to lead this effort.

MyWestTexas.com: What other problems do we have that you can fix?
Kinky: One of our biggest problems is that Texas elected officials are so out of touch with the working people in Texas. The border is a problem and the Five Mexican Generals idea is a pretty good one. Mexico is not a poor country it's an OPEC country, (Former President Carlos) Salinas retired to Switzerland with $32 billion. They have a corrupt government so people come over here and we feed them and take care of them all for free. I'm here to tell PEMEX we're a few quarts low and it's time to play hard ball.

MyWestTexas.com: What is the Five Mexican Generals plan?
Kinky: It was the idea of my friend Joaquin Jackson, a former Texas Ranger. We would divide the border into five jurisdictions, assign each jurisdiction to a Mexican general and then put $2 million into bank accounts that we would control, one account for each general. Then, each time we catch an illegal crossing through a general's jurisdiction we take out $5,000 from that general's account. That'll solve the problem, and the Hispanic activists I've talked to say it's crazy enough that it just might work."

MyWestTexas.com: What about our criminal justice system?
Kinky: We have more people in Texas living in prisons than live free in either Vermont or Alaska. Sixty percent of those prisoners are non-violent, and many of them could be in treatment centers. Meanwhile, every neighborhood knows of a sexual predator that's out there in their neighborhood, and those are the ones we should put in prison and throw away the key. Drug users are not the threat that predators are. If I find you with a marijuana stash, you're going to prison, but that's not necessarily the case with predators. All of this is just common sense.

[EagleUSA]

Texas has a responsibility to provide them education and health care once they are here....
----
It is getting down to "anything to get a vote" -- even destroying America, its soverignty...well, heck, we in California are ONLY SPENDING ABOUT $10 BILLION A YEAR NOW ON ILLEGALS...ALL FOR VOTES, so Texans should not feel alone!!!

[marty60]

She just lost any chance of becoming GOV.

[Happy2BMe]

Gubner Mike Huckabee of Arkansas had (until last week) possible aspirations of becoming the next president (he didn't get a single vote in the straw poll voting among other GOP hopefuls).

He is among the many GOP "leaders" deemed to be heroes by the illegal alien populations of America . .

Speaker: NAACP, LULAC should team up

Huckabee promotes 'open door' policy at LULAC convention

[Puddleglum]

Maybe our old friend jveritas can weigh in and opine on this, the fruit of Republican ascendancy.